Signs, Tools, and Mediation
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Title
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Signs, Tools, and Mediation
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Description
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The basic analogy between sign and tool rests on the mediating function that characterizes each of them. They may, therefore, from the psychological perspective, be subsumed under the same category. We can express the logical relationship between the use of signs and of tools using the schema in [this diagram], which shows each concept subsumed under the more general concept of indirect (mediated) activity. …
On the purely logical plane of the relation between the two concepts, our schema represents the two means of adaptation as diverging lines of mediated activity. This divergence is the basis for our second point. A most essential difference between sign and tool, and the basis for the real divergence of the two lines, is the different ways that they orient human behavior. The tool's function is to serve as the conductor of human influence on the object of activity; it is externally oriented; it must lead to changes in objects. It is a means by which human external activity is aimed at mastering, and triumphing over, nature. The sign, on the other hand, changes nothing in the object of a psychological opera-tion. It is a means of internal activity aimed at mastering oneself; the sign is internally oriented. These activities are so different from each other that the nature of the means they use cannot be the same in both cases.
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Designer
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Vygotsky, Lev
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Date
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1930
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Bibliographic Citation
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Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Edited by Michael Cole, Vera John-Steiner, Sylvia Scribner, and Ellen Souberman. Harvard University Press. Pages 54-55.
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is composed of
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English
Square
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has attribute
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English
Solid Line
